President Donald Trump has pledged to invest up to $1 trillion in America’s infrastructure, vowing to make our roads, rails and bridges the “envy of the world.”
The returns on that investment will far exceed its price tag — by creating thousands of jobs and saving consumers billions of dollars in transportation costs.
To fulfill his promise, Trump should call on Congress to send him an infrastructure bill early in the first year of his presidency. And to keep the economy growing, he should ensure that it includes substantial funding for public transportation.
Nearly 70 percent of voters polled following the presidential election support investment to repair and improve public transportation. A large majority who voted for Trump — 65 percent — feels similarly.
That’s because public transportation is a major source of working-class jobs and economic growth, in rural and urban communities alike. More than 400,000 people are currently employed in the sector. Every $1 billion spent on public transportation creates more than 50,000 jobs.
Public transportation also delivers serious savings to consumers. A person who swaps a commute by car for one by public transit can save an average of more than $800 per month — nearly $10,000 annually.
These returns redound across the economy. Every $1 spent on public transportation generates $4 in economic activity. And every $10 million investment in public transportation boosts business sales by $30 million.
But the dire state of our existing infrastructure makes the need for such funding even more pressing.
According to the Federal Transit Administration, more than 40 percent of buses and 25 percent of rail transit assets are in marginal or poor condition. One in four bridges is structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. One in three roads is in poor or mediocre condition.
Two-thirds of manufacturers doubt that American infrastructure will meet economic demand over the next 15 years. It’s not surprising, then, that the American Society of Civil Engineers slapped the nation’s infrastructure with a grade of D+, noting that many structures are falling apart.
These embarrassing statistics are the product of insufficient infrastructure investment. There’s a nearly $90 billion backlog in deferred maintenance and replacement funds for public transit. The United States is currently investing $17.7 billion a year in a public transportation system that needs nearly two and a half times as much.
When given the opportunity, voters have chosen to tax themselves to fund public transportation. This past Election Day, voters nationwide approved 34 of 49 local ballot measures at a historic funding level of $170 billion — including L.A. County Metro’s Measure M. Since 2000, transit measures have succeeded at the ballot box 71 percent of the time.
Now it’s time for the federal government to do its part to bring America’s public transit infrastructure up to a state of good repair — and expand it to meet growing public demand.
Lawmakers can do so by providing more funding for the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act and shoring up the Highway Trust Fund, which helps pay for public roads, bridges and public transit projects.
Our investment deficit is so significant that Congress has had to make numerous internal accounting transfers to keep the Fund afloat. The Congressional Budget Office projects that by 2021, the fund will be bankrupt — $2.3 billion short of its national transit obligations.
Dedicated and sustained funding must be a federal priority in order to renew and expand our nation’s public transportation systems while assuring America’s competitiveness. The government should also create a new federal infrastructure initiative, to speed up the review and approval process for public infrastructure projects.
To complement sustained funding, the government must partner with the private sector. Seventy-three percent of government public transportation funding goes to support hundreds of thousands of private-sector jobs. Private companies can often complete projects more quickly, especially when they have contractual risk for project delays.
President Trump campaigned on making American infrastructure great again. Congress must help him make good on that pledge by providing the public investment needed to rebuild our nation’s infrastructure.
Richard White is acting president and CEO of the American Public Transportation Association.
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